I want to take this moment to interrupt your daily dose of the internet and to announce that I am still alive (much to the chagrin of the terrorist gophers in my backyard. You understand this comment if you’ve followed past posts). Therefore, I shall follow this pronouncement with some random thoughts and news:
Back in my March 30th post, I expressed concern in this journal that for the first time since the Great Depression, the Feds stepped in not only to bailout a major bank (Bear Steans), but to ease the way for that bank to be bought by another bank (JP Morgan Chase). In that post I stated that there is no way that this ends well. Sadly, as everyone is aware by now, I was right on that point. It hasn’t ended and it won’t end well. Washington Mutual Bank was literally dissolved by the FDIC and sold to JP Morgan Chase. The Government is now the owner of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. Lehman Brothers Holdings filed bankruptcy and its assets were sold to Barclay Capital. The Feds stepped in to rescue AIG, but let Lehman Brothers disappear. The price tag for this Wall Street meltdown? $700 Billion and climbing. I think this pretty much locks up George W. Bush’s place in history next to Hoover, Harding and Grant.
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Watched the Presidential debates last night along with most Americans. My opinion? No matter who the next President is (and both men are extremely capable of occupying that office in my opinion) the number one goal must be to find and kill bin Baden and destroy Al Qaeda. The bombing of the Marriott in Pakistan was a warning like the bombing of the USS Cole was a precursor to the destruction on September 11, 2001. The world remains a dangerous place and those who espouse terrorism as a means to change need to be eliminated from the human gene pool. ’nuff said.
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It is often extremely difficult for most African-American families to trace their family genealogy past the Civil War. Believe me, Alex Haley and his family history described in Roots is the exception, not the rule. And yes I know about Haley’s plagiarism from The African by Harold Courlander. Nevertheless, I have been trying to trace my family history since 2000 when I realized that there was no single consolidated record of my family members. Genealogy, by very definition, is a work in progress, but I have pretty much done as much as I can do in the archiving of my family history back to 1846; and have reached a point where I can post what I know on the net so that my near and distant family can see and correct (and much correction is still needed). The web site is functional, a work in progress and located at www.wsash.org . I am pleased that the gift to my grandchildren is a verified knowledge of the existence of my great, great, grandparents. I think that’s pretty cool.
Until the next time our paths cross, I wish you all fair winds and following seas.